Chapter 71. What Is Usability, Really?
Your design will affect how much the user must think to get the job done. If you made a scale that goes from “no thinking” to “thinking hard,” that would be a usability scale.
One of the most common myths in UX is that good usability is more pleasing to the eye.
It is impossible for something to “look usable.” If someone says that about your design, ignore it.
When users are surveyed about which design is “most usable,” their opinions are more related to the beauty than the effectiveness. This means we can’t trust user opinions about how usable a design is.
Usability is measured by what people do:
If more people buy something in an uglier design, it is more usable.
If people read more in an uglier design, it is more usable.
If more people register via the uglier design, it is more usable.
Sometimes you will be forced to choose between beauty and usability. Always choose usability.
Usability = Cognitive Load
Cognitive load is the amount of processing power that is required to complete any little thing we make a user’s brain do. For example:
It takes less work to continue what you’re doing than to do something different.
It takes less work to find something again than it did to find it the first time.
It takes less work to read simple words than to read complicated words.
It takes less work to agree than it does to complain.
Every detail in your design (and in your life) should reduce the amount of cognitive load between the user (or yourself) and positive ...
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